Grade-school Lolita: ‘So Sexy So Soon’ [Archive] - Debate Policy

actsnoblemartin

08-06-2008, 07:56 PM

Kathianne

08-06-2008, 08:13 PM

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26037851?GT1=43001

The sexualized childhood and how it affects kids younger than you think

What should the role of schools be in helping children (and their parents) deal with the sexualized media culture?
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TODAY
updated 8:03 a.m. PT, Wed., Aug. 6, 2008
In their new book “So Sexy So Soon” authors Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne write about the trend of children becoming sexualized at a young age due to media images and marketing campaigns that encourage youth to be “sexy,” and they offer advice on how parents can protect their kids. An excerpt.

Yep it's happening. Who is it that buys clothing, make up, etc., for 8-12 year olds? Not the kids. It's the parents, the same lamenting their 12-16 year olds for being hyper-sexualized.

Martin, you may be too young to have a memory of what was the norm not so long ago. It's always the girls, not the boys. Partially it's the nature of maturity, but girls also have more 'out there' signs of being girls: clothes, make up, jewelry, nail polish, hair coloring, etc. It used to be the norm, at least in the environment I grew up under, that girls didn't wear make up or even pantyhose, until at least jr high. Make up was forbidden to be worn at school, until high school, (public).

'Dating' just didn't exist beyond groups until high school, and that is if one's parents would allow you to get in a car. Group dates, ala jr high consisted of meeting at the Walgreen's lunch counter or going to a movie everyone could walk to. Not the home parties so many of my students' parents are now trying to outdo each other with, and that's in a 'religious school.'

I can't believe some of the clothing parents find acceptable to allow girls out in nowadays, when they are 12-15 years old. Literally they are wearing underwear as shirts, underwear that pushes up and out. While it may just be in poor taste for an 11-13 year old, by 14-15 the boys are starting to catch up in the maturity department, without the controls most above 17 have. (Granted 17 year old boys don't have all that much control, but way more than a 14 year old). It would be funny, if not so sad. While date rape is real, the idea that a very young person: female feeling 'control' she doesn't understand; male have much less control and also getting mixed messages. Well it's a disaster in the making.